A review by arielamandah
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

4.0

Ooph. This was a tough one. This is a beautifully-written book. It's masterfully crafted and executed extremely well. It's also super depressing. It's no secret that this book is structured as a retelling fo King Lear. While Lear is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, I found the structure distracting at first. Half of my brain was always looking for the linkages. Once I was able to let that go, I found it reappearing at surprising moments that enriched the story rather than stealing from it. Still, phew, I walked away from this book feeling exceedingly gloomy. The content is TOUGH.